My Class Setup

(from new)

Printable Templates

(click to copy & print in Google Docs)

Classroom Layout Checklist to support all learners

Signs

Frequent Use During Year

I started compiling the advice I give to new teachers into this Suh-tarter Pack doc. Non-science teachers have told me this was useful and/or rarely-heard guidance for them too. Feel free to share, link, extract, etc.

Procedures

A note: I limit my values/”classroom norms” to 3-4 and make them broad enough to be translatable to any situation. Keep them outcome-focused, so whom does the behavior affect, NOT the intention of the actor.

Directions: (1) create poster/category; (2) display where values apply; (3) point to poster when reminding.

Invite students to create their own to display alongside yours.

TEACHER VALUES

  1. Everyone deserves the right to learn.

  2. Rules apply equally for our own safety.

  3. We grow and learn together.
    (Act with empathy – bring your best self.)

  4. Take turns and boost each other’s voices.

ENTER

  1. Enter quietly.

  2. Take Do Now by door.

  3. Get notebook/binder.

  4. Sit in assigned seat and follow Do Now instructions.

EXIT

  1. Complete Exit Ticket.

  2. Tidy & clean surroundings.

  3. Line up at door.

  4. Wait quietly to be dismissed.

GROUP WORK

Depends on student agreement and task.

ASSIGNMENTS

Created giant washi tape grid for monthly calendar on a whiteboard in the back, loaded all assignments on their due date at the beginning of each month. No surprise late work.

Décor

Above Entrance

  • FREEDOM print by Emory Douglas

  • “Enter to Learn… (above door entering room)
    Depart to Serve (above door leaving room)” – Mary McLeod Bethune

  • Safe Space poster

Classroom Door (Interior)

  • “You are your own best thing.” –
    Toni Morrison in English, Spanish, Chinese (when door is open, these greet students as they walk in) (click to copy & edit your own)

  • Queer space & Wellness half-poster

  • blue cellophane to tint the windows in the doors and increase reflection/reduce distraction

Classroom Door (Exterior)

  • whiteboard decal where I write the daily main topics of each of my classes

  • a washi tape geometric logo I made of the school mascot with a washi tape heart saying “LOVE” on it

  • “Please knock! Learning inside!”

  • teen & suicide support hotline info

Storage closet door

  • 50 Women in Science postcards taped into one poster

  • “A safe lab is a happy lab!”

Lab Table placed along entranceway funnels foot traffic into straight line against wall of cabinets holding books & notebooks. The Table holds Do Now slips and turn-in trays.

Outside Classroom Wall

Supply cabinet doors where students line up

  • EXIT norms poster

  • “Mistakes are evidence you are learning.”

  • “Just because you have to do it yourself doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.”

  • “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

  • Latinx leaders at NASA half-poster

  • African-American leaders at NASA half-poster

  • Know Your Rights: A Guide for Immigrants stapled packet

  • Stonewall Was A Riot – Don’t Forget Our Queer Story – “I’m not missing a minute of this. It’s the revolution!” - Sylvia Rivera poster

  • lab safety poster

Front Whiteboard

  • “All models are wrong. Some models are useful.” (above)

  • Agenda & lesson objective (color-coded by class & º)

  • Important announcements (red)

Rear Whiteboard

  • Marking period calendar with assignments, quizzes, labs, homework, and tests marked at beginning of marking period & pointed at when discussing assignments or unit plan

  • Discussion stems (posted & used in STEM classrooms @ school) (plain DOC) (SLIDES for posters or card sort activity)

  • Affinity group flags

Photo Slideshow

(more to come of different rooms)